To protect the agency's pre-decisional deliberative process or attorney-client
privilege, or attorney work products (23%)

To protect proprietary information (8%)

Definitions of Terms and Acronyms Used in the Report

Agency-specific acronyms or other terms.

Basic terms, expressed in common terminology.

FOIA/PA request -- Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act request. A FOIA request is generally a request for access to records concerning a third party, an organization, or a particular topic of interest. A Privacy Act request is a request for records concerning oneself; such requests are also treated as FOIA requests. (All requests for access to records, regardless of which law is cited by the requester, are included in this report.)

Initial Request -- a request to a Federal agency for access to
records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Appeal -- a request to a Federal agency asking that it review
at a higher administrative level a full denial or partial denial
of access to records under the Freedom of Information Act or any
other FOIA determination such as a matter pertaining to fees.

Processed Request or Appeal -- a request or appeal for which
an agency has taken a final action on the request or the appeal
in all respects.

Multi-track processing -- a system in which simple requests requiring
relatively minimal review are placed in one processing track and
more voluminous and complex requests are placed in one or more
other tracks. Requests in each track are processed on a first-in/first-out
basis. A requester who has an urgent need for records may request
expedited processing (see below).

Expedited processing -- an agency will process a FOIA request
on an expedited basis when a requester has shown an exceptional
need or urgency for the records that warrants prioritization of
his or her request over other requests that were made earlier.

Simple request -- a FOIA request that an agency using multi-track
processing places in its fastest (nonexpedited) track based on
the volume and/or simplicity of records requested.

Complex request -- a FOIA request that an agency using multi-track
processing places in a slower track based on the volume and/or
complexity of records requested.

Grant -- an agency decision to disclose all records in full in
response to a FOIA request.

Partial grant -- an agency decision to disclose a record in part
in response to a FOIA request, deleting information determined
to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions; or a
decision to disclose some records in their entireties, but to
withhold others in whole or in part.

Denial -- an agency decision not to release any part of a record
or records in response to a FOIA request because all the information
in the requested records is determined by the agency to be exempt
under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions or for some procedural
reason (such as because no record is located in response to a
FOIA request).

Time Limits -- the period in the Freedom of Information Act for
an agency to respond to a FOIA request (ordinarily 20 working
days from proper receipt of a "perfected" FOIA request).

"Perfected" request -- a FOIA request for records that adequately
describes the records sought, that has been received by the FOIA
office of the agency or agency component in possession of the
records, and for which there is no remaining question about the
payment of applicable fees.

Exemption 3 statute -- a separate Federal statute prohibiting
the disclosure of a certain type of information and authorizing
its withholding under FOIA subsection (b)(3).

Median number -- the middle, not average, number. For example,
of 3, 7, and 14, the median number is 7.

Average number -- the number obtained by dividing the sum of
a group of numbers by the quantity of numbers in the group. For
example, of 3, 7, and 14, the average number is 8.

Exemption 3 Statutes

List of Exemption 3 statutes relied on by agency during current
fiscal year.

Brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each
statute.

Number of requests pending as of end of preceding fiscal year (09/30/03)

71

2.

Number of requests received during current fiscal year

372

3.

Number of requests processed during current fiscal year

389

4.

Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year (09/30/04)

54

B.

Disposition of initial requests.

1.

Number of total grants

155

2.

Number of partial grants

101

3.

Number of denials

22

a.

number of times each FOIA exemption used (counting each exemption
once per request)

(1) Exemption 1

1

(2) Exemption 2

37

(3) Exemption 3

4

(4) Exemption 4

16

(5) Exemption 5

47

(6) Exemption 6

36

(7) Exemption 7(A)

18

(8) Exemption 7(B)

0

(9) Exemption 7(C)

39

(10) Exemption 7(D)

3

(11) Exemption 7(E)

0

(12) Exemption 7(F)

0

(13) Exemption 8

0

(14) Exemption 9

0

4.

Other reasons for nondisclosure (total)

111

a.

no records

50

b.

referrals

0

c.

requests withdrawn

23

d.

fee-related reason

30

e.

records not reasonably described

1

f.

not a proper FOIA request for some other reason

1

g.

not an agency record

0

h.

duplicate request

2

i.

other (neither confirm nor deny (3),
lack of response(1))

4

VI.

Appeals of Initial Denials of FOIA/PA Requests

A.

Numbers of appeals.

1.

Number of appeals received during fiscal year

10

2.

Number of appeals processed during fiscal year

12

B.

Disposition of appeals.

1.

Number completely upheld

4

2.

Number partially reversed

4

3.

Number completely reversed

0

a.

number of times each FOIA exemption used
(counting each exemption once per appeal)

(1) Exemption 1

1

(2) Exemption 2

2

(3) Exemption 3

1

(4) Exemption 4

1

(5) Exemption 5

4

(6) Exemption 6

2

(7) Exemption 7(A)

0

(8) Exemption 7(B)

0

(9) Exemption 7(C)

1

(10) Exemption 7(D)

0

(11) Exemption 7(E)

0

(12) Exemption 7(F)

0

(13) Exemption 8

0

(14) Exemption 9

0

4.

Other reasons for nondisclosure (total)

4

a.

no records

1

b.

referrals

0

c.

requests withdrawn

1

d.

fee-related reason

0

e.

records not reasonably described

0

f.

not a proper FOIA request for some other reason

1

g.

not an agency record

0

h.

duplicate request

0

i.

other (expedited processing denial)

1

VII.

Compliance with Time Limits/Status of Pending Requests

FY 2004 median day calculations are based on working days.

A.

Median processing time for requests processed during the
year.

1.

Simple requests (Track A).

a.

number of requests processed

357

b.

median number of days to process

11

2.

Complex requests (Tracks B & C).

a.

number of requests processed

27

b.

median number of days to process

47

3.

Requests accorded expedited processing.

a.

number of requests processed

5

b.

median number of days to process

60

B.

Status of pending requests.

1.

Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 54

Track A

43

Track B

11

2.

Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that
date:

Track A

41

Track B

111

VIII.

Comparisons with Previous Year(s)

Calculations are based on working days.

FY 03

FY 04

% Change
FY 03 to FY 04

A.

Number of requests received

450

372

(17%)

B.

Number of requests processed

434

389

(10%)

C.

Median number of days requests were pending as of end
of fiscal year

28

54

93%

D.

Other statistics significant to agency

Expedited Processing --

Received

23

29

Granted

10

5

E.

Other agency efforts to improve timeliness of FOIA performance
and to make records available to the public:

List of FOIA requests by subject that were completed
during the year placed on the FOIA page of the NRC Web site.

Training on the FOIA process was provided to various
staff offices with emphasis placed on specific office needs.

Several internal agency service levels are used to enhance
the agency's processing timeliness. Reports showing the status of
open cases are provided to offices in an effort to heighten management
awareness of pending cases.

In addition to providing general public access to material released under the FOIA, in FY 04 the NRC placed over 75,000 of its official agency records in its Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS). These documents are available electronically for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room or from the Publicly Available Records (PARS) component of ADAMS. ADAMS is accessible from the NRC web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html (the NRC Library). This extensive voluntary release program has resulted in 2.8 million documents being made publicly available either in paper, microfiche or electronically.

IX.

Costs/FOIA Staffing

A.

Staffing levels.

1.

Number of full-time FOIA personnel

5

2.

Number of personnel with part-time or occasional FOIA duties (in
total work-years)